wow! so much has been happening to me this week... very eventful.

Biggest news is that my little sis jess is officially moving out of home! Even though I have been scanning her xanga site, there was no prewarning... I only found out last saturday, and she moved out a week later!!! This makes me quite sad from several perspectives:

1. Our family unit is breaking up! I figure this will be the last time we're all living together in the one house. Jess won't be around to help buffer the nagging from the mumma's & the pappa's. This is very bad, cos most nagging is directed at me (nat, you used my towel again! nat, why don't you fill the water urn when you finish it? nat, don't forget to wash your dishes. put the left overs in the fridge. did you vacuum your room yet? stop treating this house like a hotel etc)

2. I have not moved out of home yet... I want to move out and have my own place too. I feel like I am lagging behind in life stages... my little sister is more mature than me?!

3. It will be lonely! Who will I eat dinner with on Friday nights?

Anyway, I'm sure she'll have a blast, and eat lots of sushi cos its so cheap.

Other news is that I lost my friggin mobile. Again. I got drunk on Wednesday night with some work buddies, and lost the mobile in the cab (done this before) on the way home... Dammit. I must've called HT, then forgot I was holding it. I also got home and had a shower and forgot to wash my hair. I then forgot to dry my hair, and went to bed, but forgot to put on my pj's or turn off my light! I woke up at abt 5am wondering why my light was on. Unfortunately I also forgot to drink a huge bottle of water before going to sleep, so I was quite hung over on Thursday. Had to take a sick day :) Fantastic use of sick day!

Ok, sorry for the outburst... back to work...

Nats Theories on Life #1: Skinny Singaporeans

Each time I go to Singapore, I am astounded at how short the people are, and how strong the skinny arms are that are shoving me around. But, I have figured out the sad truth behind why Singaporeans are so skinny. Its very scientific, so it must be true:

Singaporeans live in Singapore (duh), which has a very hot and humid climate. This humid climate means that their bodies never crave water – they can just absorb it from the atmosphere. Hence, their bodies have adjusted, and never ever retain water.

However, in Sydney, we have a hot dry climate. Our bodies are ALWAYS craving water, and we have learnt to store it everywhere (back of our arms, thighs, tummy, side of face, neck rolls). We are always going to be fatter than the standard Singaporean.

Sad, but true.

I still call Australia home... I just have to dial international!

So many of the friends that I love have turned their back on the easy life in Australia, and travelled to places far and wide to live, work and play. What is driving them from the sea, sun, surf and sand that we've all grown up with?

The list is long - of my closest friends I can name 12 who have moved overseas or lived overseas in the last 3 years - Fiona, Marina, Lish, Gavin, Larry, Dion, Eric, Don, Po, Terence, Ivy and more recently Tony. And the list is only getting longer... They've moved to places such as London, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. And spent countless weekends on Jetstar flights to exotic cities around Europe and South East Asia.

But what has driven these young, bright, 20-somethings (and tony) out of their native country? Is it the urge to see what lies on other continents? Experience other cultures? Live a life of luxury? Lots and lots of money? Endless weekend mini-breaks ala Bridget Jones?

Most of these friends vowed that, despite leaving, they "still caaaalled Austraaaaalia hoooome", and would return in "a few years". So why did all these people decide to give up two years in the prime of their life, living in a country they aren't comfortable calling home?

My suspiscion is we're all wishing that we could refresh our lives, as easily as I can refresh this blog! Thinking back on my uni days, I remember I used to dream of working in the "great outdoors" (outside Australia that is) to:
1. Earn heaps of money that I would spend on extravagant items both while overseas and when I returned to Australia
2. Travel around the continent at the drop of a hat and have mad adventures with extroverted strangers
3. Move out of home
4. Meet a rich fella who would pay all my bills and would hire me to become his professional tai-tai

Bottom line being - I wish I could make all aspects of my life dramatically better and lose the pragmatic constraints of money, career and family. Replace these with endless parties, holidays and friends in an alien landscape and you've got the onestop formula for "rediscovering yourself", "taking control of your life" and "realising your dreams".

What a FEELING!

Does Jason remind you of a telly tubby? (Or is it just me?)

Yes, you guessed it, yet ANOTHER night of karaoke!

Its been a while since my last update, cos I’ve just been so busy with work and KARAOKE. Sat 2 wks ago was fantastic, but I gotta say that the Karaoke just last w/end with the normals (Jason, Becky & HT) and Kim, Mel & Tiff was even better! Think it may have been Tiff’s singing/dancing ensemble… or the sexy Chinese mums singing “what a feeling” (go the full sequin dresses) or maybe just cos everyone was a karaoke virgin, and so they kept offering the mike to me (yay!). Actually, think it was cos everyone was so chilled and having so much fun :)
Anyways, a great night!

Gotta also mention the fun I had at the V-day POPP party - pigging out on Becky's mega gourmet sandwiches and Syls yummy viet summer rolls YUM! trying to swim to the shark net (when i think of it now, its quite stupid!), and learning how to catch waves at the totally flat Nielsen Park! Was so much fun... Marissa, reason i was lying on the sand like a beached whale after catching those "huge" waves in cos was my top sorta came off, so I was hiding myself while doing vital adjustments... hahaha

Home-maid: Living at home in the new millenium

I read an article in Time magazine the other day that highlighted a new trend in twenty-somethings. We’re all living at home, despite approaching “over the hill” status!

Quick mini tally in my head shows that 50% of my friends still live at home, while the other half have moved out of the nest and into their own abode. You guessed it, the freeloaders are all asian!

Is this yet another indication of our superior calculative brain powers, or just a reflection of the chasm between ang-mor and chinese? Why have we chosen to cling to this last bastion of chinese culture? Are we making sure we get our moneys worth before we move out, only to have our parents move back in with us, this time an all-expenses-paid, free-loading trip for them?

Then I realised that living at home is the new form of freedom for us aussie bred chinese folk – freedom from any chores & all responsibility!

• With the right training, your parents will sit quietly through the sex & the city –athon and 3 back to back episodes of will & grace followed by Gilmore girls, without even asking for the control… all on the family funded flat screen tv
• You can use the entertainment room to play rounds of Singstar with friends, kicking the rest of your family to the equally functional (if not as impressive) upstairs tv, kitchen tv or bedroom tv
• When you know you’re going to lao-sai really bad, you can always use your parents bathroom – she’s had heaps more practise cleaning toilets anyway
• Your old-skool chinese dishwasher (aka mum) is way better than those SMEG ones, due to the automatic dish clearing and putting away function. Although they do tend to be a bit noisy and whine a lot!

Hmmm… maybe living at home is not so bad… Something to think about while I eat my home made salad from my mummy (she made it for me before she left for work this morning).

Who's your best friend?

I was thinking the other day, what makes someone your “Best Friend”? Is it someone you hang out with all the time? Or the person you call when you’re in trouble? Is it the person you’ve known for the longest amount of time? Is there some sort of etiquette, where you must be better friends with the person you’ve known the longest, rather than the person you know the best?

So, I’ve made a quick survey that you can do to figure out who is your bestest friend of all. Don’t cheat! If you’re gonna do it, you can’t read it first, otherwise it won’t work…

1. VIP list – ok, choose the party you’d most like to have … lets say it’s a pool party… if you were having a pool party and could only invite say 5 people, who would you invite? They don’t have to get along with each other, so long they get along with you. Put these 5 people at the top of your list.
2. Hanging out time – Rank the 5 ppl in order of how much time you spend with them (this includes how much time you spend talking to them – extra weighting if you paid for the call – but does not include any time you spend talking ABOUT them to others. Extra weighting also if you would actually drive across Sydney to go see them with no particular plans in mind. Disregard all hours spent at dragonboat training)
3. Who’s your bailer – extra points to the one you call to bail you out. Think of the last time you were really stuck. Maybe your car broke down, or you ran out of money, or some gay guy was trying to hug you on NYE, or you weren’t invited to a party and needed to pretend you were busy, or you WERE invited to a party but you didn’t want to go … who did you call? Who bailed you out?
4. Known time – how long have you known this person? Ok, now minus all those years you spent avoiding them… And take away the years you spent complaining about them… Now totally disregard that number, cos it doesn’t mean anything.

AND YOUR BEST FRIEND IS… the first person you thought of when trying to answer question 1.

B-oar-dom

Everyone has heard about the plight of tony’s oar, but I’ll publish the story for those in outlying areas like London and Malaysia to read about.

2 years ago, Tony and some other keen dragonboaters purchased for themselves a fully sic black carbon paddle from burnwater in canada. Tony being the ever generous and supportive coach, lent his $250 USD carbon oar to Terence during the Australian National team training 2004. Terence, absent minded as usual :), left the oar at Penrith on the last day of training… However, he managed to secure another oar from to take to the races in China… Anyways, Joe passed me his oar to give back to Tony (this bit I don’t understand – Joe why are you so generous? Just give your oar away like that?) who had since moved to HK. So I travelled in business class with the paddle in luggage.

When I arrived at the baggage carousel in Singapore I was one of the first off the plane. There was only 1 item out – going round and round the carousel all by its lonesome was Tony’s oar from Joe – sitting in its own luggage box, bubble wrapped with stickers all over. A group of 5 aussie ang-mor guys were standing around looking at it – “what the hell happened to that broom?!?” Tony’s oar was snapped clean through at about 5cm from the handle…

I’ve never laughed so hard in my life!!!

Sorry Tony. Qantas is chasing the claim through for us.